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They did it: Eintracht captain Sebastian Rode (middle) celebrates the comeback from Lisbon with teammate Tuta
Photo:
RODRIGO ANTUNES / REUTERS
Mirror image of happiness:
the slightly better team for 60 minutes, only to end up with empty hands: Eintracht Frankfurt knows that. The SBU experienced that in the first leg at home against Sporting, in the first Champions League game in the club's history 0:3 was lost.
Back then, at the beginning of September, this undoubtedly talented team was a fragile entity that had to learn quickly.
Two months later, Eintracht has now proven its ability to learn – and turned the tables.
A bit of luck before the equalizer, smart changes by coach Oliver Glasner and the willpower of Randal Kolo Muani, who scored the transfer goal, helped the Frankfurt debutant to make it into the top 16 in the premier class.
Or, as goalkeeper Kevin Trapp put it: "I think we made history again today."
The result:
Frankfurt's Eintracht won 2-1 (0-1) at the Lisbon Sporting Club.
It was clear that that would be enough for the round of 16 in the Champions League - only a late goal from Tottenham Hotspur in the parallel game even prevented them from winning the group.
Read the match report here.
Omens for the endgame:
leisurely phasing out, sparing top players?
On match day six of the Champions League, many clubs take the premier class a little easier.
Not so the four candidates in Frankfurt Group D: Tottenham (8 points), Sporting (7 points), Eintracht (7 points) and Olympique Marseille (6 points) were all able to reach the knockout phase on their own – and had to mobilize the necessary forces to do this.
Not least because every club was threatened with the end in the worst case.
In Lisbon, even the assignment of referees underscored the endgame character: Slovenian Slavko Vinčić already led the Europa League final in spring, from which SGE emerged victorious.
Beneficiaries of Chaos:
At first, history didn't seem to repeat itself.
Instead of bringing structured attacking football onto the pitch, the teams competed for a long time about who started the game more jitterily: On the one hand, Kristijan Jakić (7th minute) and Daichi Kamada (14th) for Eintracht, who received warnings as early as avoidable against Sporting's Paulinho, who dangerously headed the ball onto his own goal after a corner from Frankfurt (12').
Played chances?
Not here, not yet.
Instead, Luca Pellegrini lost the ball, Frankfurter without access to the wing, Djibril Sow, who unluckily extended a cross, and finally Arthur Gomes at the far post with the lead for the Portuguese (39th).
A blow to Eintracht.
Concerns at halftime:
With only one shot and great harmlessness at the break, Oliver Glasner's team could not console themselves with their own ball possession advantages.
And even less with a look at the live table: Marseille had presented there in the home game against Tottenham and moved into second place in the group behind Sporting.
After 45 minutes, Eintracht was not only eliminated from the premier class, the Europa League consolation prize was also a long way off.
Glasner's trick with the captain:
Glasner couldn't help but react: Sebastian Rode replaced the pale Jesper Lindstrøm at the restart.
Of course not true to position, Lindstrøm is a winger, Captain Rode is a worker in midfield.
But that's exactly what was needed so that creative head Daichi Kamada could orientate himself further forward, while Rode for his part collected the second ball almost single-handedly.
17 tackles won at the final whistle – the best of any player on the pitch.
Rode, who was also named player of the game, only played half of the game.
The Tragedy of Sebastián Coates:
On another night that award might have gone to the other captain, Sporting's.
Sebastián Coates, an experienced defender from Uruguay, put in a top performance for an hour and stopped Kolo Muani in particular from developing.
Then Coates wrestled for balance with his right arm after an aerial duel with Kamada.
A natural movement, only stupid that Coates didn't notice the ball in his back, which he dug out of danger with his hand.
Kamada converted the penalty due himself (62nd).
And then Kolo Muani also escaped when he chose next-door opponent Gonçalo Inácio instead of Coates as an opponent and shot a dream from a tight angle (72').
That's how quickly Coates' gala performance turned into a used day.
The next chance to write history:
Eintracht can now be curious to see which group winner from the various pots will be the task for the round of 16.
The draw will take place in Nyon, Switzerland on Monday afternoon (12 noon) and the next games will then be played at the beginning of February.